


Hangover (Second Round)

by neon



Series: The Red Shot Bar AU [5]
Category: Final Fantasy VII Remake (Video Game 2020)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Established Relationship, M/M, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-04
Updated: 2020-10-04
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:29:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,199
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26808157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neon/pseuds/neon
Summary: Part of theRed Shot Bar AU(companion to Part Four,"Hangover"): Avalanche doesn’t exist. Barret is the owner of theRed Shotbar in Sector 7’s slum, and Cloud is the former SOLDIER turned mercenary who’s rolled into town.About time a hospital, even just a tent of one, was erected in the Sector 7 slums. It stood on the opposite side of the fence from the old factory, taking up the widest part of an already narrow path between the station and the heart of the slums. Barret almost ripped the flap off when he busted through. In the far back corner, he made out that blond head of spikes.
Relationships: Cloud Strife/Barret Wallace
Series: The Red Shot Bar AU [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1858192
Comments: 4
Kudos: 77





	Hangover (Second Round)

About time a hospital, even just a tent of one, was erected in the Sector 7 slums. It stood on the opposite side of the fence from the old factory, taking up the widest part of an already narrow path between the station and the heart of the slums. Barret almost ripped the flap off when he busted through. In the far back corner, he made out that blond head of spikes.

Cloud was sitting up in his cot.

His eyes, as dull as frosted panes of glass, saw nothing through them.

More than woozy, or just out of it - Barret remembered that look. His cheek got sore, thinking about when he'd seen it before.

Barret came to a halt between Cloud and whatever far off memory he was really seeing. He loudly said Cloud's name. The awareness that finally glossed his eyes was a downright eerie transformation.

Vaguely, still, Cloud uttered, _Huh?_ He covered his forehead with a hand that tremored, and he lowered his face from sight. "Shit…"

" _Hey_." Barret stomped to the cot’s edge and barely held himself from shaking the merc by the shoulder. Instead of grabbing Cloud, Barret used his hand to tear his sunglasses off and catch Cloud’s gaze with his uncovered, fierce one.

It pulled Cloud’s along, back on track to the present. He stared at Barret like he was the last house standing after a bombing.

"What's goin' on, Cloud?"

"Barret. I thought - I thought I was back in-"

He cut off. Barret didn’t get it, until he did. The hanging canvas walls, the rows of cots, the pockets of chaos surrounding each patient - all of it resembled military camp, of course it did. Too much for Cloud’s, and Barret’s, liking just then.

But did that mean, "You been hospitalized before?"

They both knew when 'before' meant. Shit, Barret _hoped_ the both of them knew. Wouldn’t be the first time Cloud couldn’t tell the difference, though, between his days of being a SOLDIER or an ex one. Under Barret’s eye throbbed from memory again.

Cloud nodded, although his gaze was starting to drift. Barret told him: "Let’s get you the hell out of here."

"Yeah… Yeah." _Please,_ Cloud rasped.

He could only watch Cloud fumble to tie his boots back on for so long, before he crouched and did it like he’d done for Marlene a hundred times. Like he would let missing a hand stop him from being able to do something as simple as that, for his kid. _Pull tight,_ Barret said, handing Cloud one lace so Barret could loop, and loop, and loop the other with one-handed practice. He watched the shame cross Cloud’s face and ignored it. What was there to be ashamed about - man had been _poisoned_ by some asshole of a monster.

Cloud sounded frustrated, mostly confused, when he told, "My limbs feel like _liquid._ "

"Hear poison does that. C’mon, now." Helping him from the bed, Barret had to bend at the knees to keep an arm behind Cloud and hold him up.

"Sure, but I’m a-" Cloud’s next breath pulled in sharply, at the strain from standing, or from the slip-up. "I _was_ a SOLDIER. Must’ve been some concentrated shit."

"You make the thing pay for it?"

Finally managed to get that smirk to color Cloud’s too pale, bloodless lips. "What do you think?"

Anyone in Barret’s way faced the full brunt of his intimidating stature. Last doctor standing was, impressively, not cowed. She gave a sigh, and told them on their way through, "Well, you’re looking more clear-eyed than before. I’m guessing you have cleansing materia? Then use it, if the tremors get worse. If they still get worse," she directed at Barret, "Bring him back. Quickly."

Barret lifted his chin, and replied without guff, _Will do, doc. Thanks._

The _Red Shot_ was nearer than Cloud’s place at _Stargazer Heights_ , and Cloud got out that he had the materia the doc had mentioned on him, so Barret eased him into the nearest chair in the bar, and watched him cautiously as he leaned halfway on the table’s edge with a relieved, shaky sigh. Barret pulled his chair up to Cloud’s, sitting backwards with his legs spread, while leaning over the back poles to see into Cloud’s face.

"Y’alright?"

Cloud huffed, "I’m fine." Rolled his eyes at the continued discerning look. "I will be. SOLDIER, remember?"

Hard to forget, with the way it reared its head sometimes. Like back in the tent. "So, what… you got hurt before, when? During the war?"

Cloud glanced sharply at Barret, then immediately away. "…Yeah."

"How bad was it?"

Barely a response was what Barret got. A grunt, _Mm. Bad enough._

"…You gonna tell me how-"

" _Barret - stop!"_

The silence that followed was as deep as Cloud’s voice had rung. Before he suddenly started to damn _stammer_.

"I can’t talk about this. I n- _need_ this wall to stay upright, now. It’s the only thing - it’s the only thing keeping me from-"

"Alright - easy, easy. Take a breath." Doc had said to bring Cloud back if he started shivering, but Barret had a feeling she didn’t mean shivering like this.

It took a moment, but Cloud finally did as told, and the breath that shuddered in came out as a slower, controlled stream.

"You still with me?" A shallow nod was good. "Hey. Tell me if touching you is such a smart idea, right now."

Another moment… then, another nod.

Barret swung off his chair. Beside Cloud’s, he bent one leg and pressed his other knee to the floor. In his hand he picked up one of Cloud’s, and pressed both of theirs flat and firm onto Cloud’s chest.

"You ain’t gotta talk about it. Hell, no. But I’ll be there to take the load, if and when. Got that?"

Something like a full body waver passed over Cloud. Barret didn’t know how to describe it. It was like the shake and crumble of dust and pebbles in a mineshaft, that bare minimum warning before abrupt collapse.

Cloud dropped his forehead into his palm, again. Through the space in Cloud’s bent arm, Barret caught sight of two drops on their path to splashing the table.

Barret didn't have reason to ever think it before, but he knew then that seeing Cloud cry was something he wished he’d never had to see. Goddammit, that was… goddammit.

" _Fuck,_ " spat Cloud, trying to shunt the warble with the force of his tone, "What’s _wrong_ with me? I’m only poisoned…" Barret blew his bottom lip out with puffed disbelief. 'Only', the man said. "So why the hell am I so…"

"Ain’t nothing wrong with you. Someone strong as you ain’t used to feeling so weak. That’s all."

Cloud practically growled, the low frustration from in his chest rumbling out to the two of their hands.

"This _sucks_."

"Don’t you worry about it. It’ll pass."

 _Can’t pass soon enough,_ mumbled Cloud, thickly. Barret bent and locked his wide fingers through Cloud’s strong, and slender ones, and rubbed their balled knuckles up and down Cloud’s chest until it soothed.

"That's right, relax. You stick here with me, merc. I ain't lettin' you slip away."

**Author's Note:**

> @highfivestrife (nsfw)


End file.
